You can see the balls on the TSA from Mars, trying to pass this bullshit off as an explanation/excuse… lemme ask you this:

What is more likely?

That, all of a sudden, there has been, for no apparent reason, a MASSIVE increase in the percentage of passengers who try to bring “forbidden” items through the security lines…

OR that the TSA’s recent 10% cut in screener staffing, decided upon as a tactic via which to force more people to pay for TSA Pre or Global Entry (aka, The Rich People Security Shortcut Aisles), has NOT resulted in more revenue but instead is just fucking up the regular security lines more than usual?

I know, I know… one’s instinct is to assume that YES, more people are MORE STUPIDER now, but that’s not actually how it works.

This is criminal. The TSA’s #1 Job is to “Make Air Travel Safe”. Cutting screeners and letting crowds of hundreds or thousands of people build up in unsecured lines open to the entire world does the opposite of that. Either fucking fund it to where they don’t need to perform bullshit stunts like this to try and drive people (most of whom can barely afford the plane ticket to begin with) to pay extra to get through the sometimes-available Elitist Express Lanes or have to spend 4 hours in a fucking airport to make a 45-minute flight to Cleveland, OR do the smart thing, realize that this hideously expensive security theater is just that, theater, and tell the senators who own the companies that sell the nudie x-ray scanners to piss off and SHUT IT ALL DOWN.